Magic Is But A Tool
by Pastime Activity
Summary: AU. Harry Potter isn’t your everyday seven-year-old child. And magic is but a tool to reach the top.


_**Title**__: Magic Is But A Tool._

_**Rating**__: K+_

_**Pairing(s)**__: none_

_**Summary**__: Harry Potter isn't your everyday seven-year-old child. And magic is but a tool to reach the top._

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_**Disclaimers**__: I don't own Harry Potter._

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**Magic Is But A Tool**

**Chapter 01**

_The first thing I always notice in people's eyes is, quite ironically, for a four-year-old, __**fear**__. The moment they look at me, their eyes change rapidly and emotionally, then suddenly turn normal again, feigning fake indifference, care, hatred, love. What they don't know is that their frantic heartbeat sings in my ears and the occasional flicker of their pupils never go ignored._

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Vernon Dursley could never explain the unsettling feeling that raved inside him whenever he looked at his nephew in the eyes.

Granted, he had been painfully aware of the freakish nature that ran in his wife's blood. He had first blamed on this, telling himself _'Freaks! Whole lot of them!' _to desperately squash the foreign crawling. He hired priests and exorcists discreetly to 'purify' his home right under the watchful hawk-like eyes of the neighbors. Yet Vernon felt tainted and angered. Tainted, because a respected salary man like him had to call upon those religious freaks' aid. Angered, because his normalcy, as well as his sanity, was slowly slipping from his clutch. All of this, because of one child.

Perhaps, he shouldn't have called the boy 'child'. Somehow, 'it' seemed so much proper for the little menace as Petunia always said.

To the horse-faced housewife, the wretched brat should have been dumped at some bloody orphanage and not their holy doorsteps. She, too, couldn't quite discern the dreaded feeling that kept hanging on her already craned neck at the knowledge of having Harry Potter live under her roof. Unlike Vernon, who was unfamiliar with the situation and shrugged it off as a 'freak ability', Petunia knew her insecurity did **not** come from magic alone.

Nevertheless, together, the Dursleys were clueless. Until Dudley's fifth birthday.

They all went to the city zoo to celebrate. Dudley and his best friend Piers had just forfeited their game of harassing the giant Boa Constrictor, when Harry, who joined the cozy parade only because Ms. Figg hadn't been able to babysit him for the Dursleys, stared fixedly at the reptile and emitted hissing noises, which the snake seemed to reply with equal hissing and nodded, or shook its triangular head at the brunette.

Dudley and Piers didn't remember anything after that, swallowed alive by their newly acquired fear of glass and drowning from their little accident. The adults looked askance at Harry whose necklace oddly resembled of a snake, uncertainty and hatred showed in their eyes.

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Harry stopped reading for a moment to munch the well-baked cookies delivered by Aunt Petunia to his cupboard. He had to admit, despite the woman's abysmal ability at stirring a proper conversation without gossip, she was a good cook who managed to stuff his Uncle and Dudley with her heavenly food until their belly could contain no more. Closing the door, he mumbled his thanks to the frantic Aunt, who scurried out of the hall as fast as her skeletal legs could carry her. Harry sighed inwardly, has his abnormality gotten that insufferable? Not that he actually cared, though.

Harry softly closed the book that he has been reading for two hours straight, 'The Great Gatsby'. He hasn't finished the book but has gotten a fine grasp on the themes, as well as the analysis of the characters. Harry found himself amazed at the story and yet at the same time apathetic at the characters and their fates. Perhaps, he idly thought, the post-war period had passed a long time ago, and he, a child born in recent time, couldn't link the characters' life and the present ones together. Granted that people nowadays were still as materialistic as ever, but at least morality was more respected.

Harry made a note of returning the book to the local library the next day and borrow some more. Today at primary school, he had overheard the upper classmen mentioned about gravity and the acceleration of its force. Knowing the teachers would never indulge him by wasting time telling a class full of obnoxious children something they would never understand, Harry would have to explore himself.

Glancing at the clock, the brunette saw that it was only two in the afternoon and the library hasn't closed yet. So he carefully hid 'The Great Gatsby' under his awfully thin mattress – he would finish it in tomorrow's morning – turned off the light by a hand wave and trotted out, his youthful appearance clearly disturbing for the remaining people in 4 Privet Drive.

If Harry had somehow heard Uncle Vernon grumble something about freaks and abnormality, he didn't do anything about it. Nothing could destroy his good mood now that he had found another subject to have fun with.

It didn't take him long to reach the local library. The bell rang softly upon his entering as Harry adopted a splashing smile toward the librarian who absolutely loved the book-loving, knowledge-thirsted child and his gentleman's comportment: 'Good afternoon, Miss Lara. Here I come pestering you and your lovely books again'

The librarian, apparently around her twenty, smiled gently at the brunette: 'Hello, Harry. What brings you here today? The next update isn't due for another week, you know'

'Of course I know, Miss Lara. I have just discovered a wonderful subject that is called Physics. Could you please recommend some interesting books on the subject for me?' asked Harry politely, and smirked inwardly when the young girl practically swooned.

'Physics at this age already, Mister Potter?'

'And could you prolong the deadline, please, you know those books are hard to learn from, even with my intelligence' said Harry with a cheeky grin that made Lara wanted to scoff at him for being so… irresistible. Harry might be a six-year-old child, but his thirst for knowledge and his unmatched intelligence was something the librarian loved to nurture. She couldn't see how such a bright child ended up with the Dursleys, who held absolutely no love for books on every subject.

Lara therefore left her favorite seat and retrieved a thick leather-bound book on the higher shelves. Handing the book to Harry, she said with a smile: 'Be sure to keep it intact, Harry, scholars tend to scribble notes all over their books'

'I won't, Miss Lara. Thank you and have a good day'

Oh, only if she had had Harry as a little brother.

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'Damn it…' the green-eyed brunette stared at his own reflection in the mirror, poking his eyes in disbelief 'I'm having circles around my eyes… Aunt Petunia's going to have a feat…'

'_You work too hard, youngling. You must rest'_ hissed the necklace on Harry's neck. The boy jumped at the sudden sound and scowled.

'_You don't have to scare the hell out of me, Boa'_

'_It's my hobby'_

'_Weird snake'_

Inside his cupboard, Harry gingerly removed the necklace by hands and carefully placed it on his cushion. With a blink, the necklace grew bigger and livelier until it reached the size of a Boa Constrictor, which made Harry felt squished all of a sudden. He petted the triangular head; the snake hissed contentedly, wrapping its enormous body around the thin boy.

'_I should have sent you back to Brazil, you know. Thank God there's still magic'_

'_Hn'_

'_I don't speak Boa Constrictor. Try again'_

'_Hn'_

Harry sighed. Leaning against the smooth scales, the raven-haired child lied comfortably, staring at the ceiling. It has been a year since he had discovered magic, thanks to Dudley's little mishap at the city zoo. When he had started to speak with the Boa, his magic had acted up, completely vanishing the glass that walled off the reptiles inside. The giant snake, which now he called Boa, had slithered up to his feet and had demanded rather harshly to be picked up. Once again, his magic had done an unimaginable feat, shrinking the snake to the size of a necklace and wrapping it around his neck. Fortunately, the Dursleys and Piers Polkiss didn't witness the process.

That piece of memories reminded him of magic, something he hadn't discovered until the zoo event. Since that day, Harry has been trying to do everything with magic: heat up food and drinks, do the dishes, turn something into something completely different. What he liked best about magic was that he could reproduce anything, from shirts to food to even money. Especially last night, he had read about the atom and its structure and now could analyze an object to the molecular level, provided the material. Which meant everything he managed to duplicate or transfigure would never disappear!

With the newly transfigured money, Harry went on a shopping spree this morning. He robbed the local bookshop to the last useful material and made the clerk swear not to reveal him to the Dursleys. He got a new haircut that made his hair looked actually freshly-out-of-bed for once and not a disorganized bird nest. He also bought clothes that actually fit since he was too lazy to transfigure some.

Harry grinned like a maniac. The Dursleys didn't know anything!

Looking at the wristwatch, Harry saw that dinnertime was approaching. So he skipped some steps down the kitchen, prepared the meals in a lively mood. He knew from the corner of his eyes that his Uncle and Aunt were staring at him suspiciously and promptly ignored it.

He still had his parents to discover the next day.

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_Please review._


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